The United Group

The United Group® (TUG) is a fully member-owned buying group for independent, B2B distributors. Our member companies are small businesses located from coast to coast: from San Diego, California to Portland, Maine, from Amarillo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota.

Many are multi-generational, family-owned businesses. Some are young companies and some are longer-lived and well-established. What they have in common is a desire to be more profitable and more effective in their respective endeavors.

Some Members may have initially joined The United Group solely to recapture profits by earning rebate dollars from our Preferred Suppliers. Over time, many Members have come to value United Group membership as an indispensible component of their annual, quarterly and even daily business plans.

Many cite the culture of openness and cooperation as the most valuable benefit of The United Group. The ability to share freely with colleagues across the country and to gain insights from their successes, failures and suggestions creates strong professional relationships (and even friendships) within the group.

Our Preferred Suppliers range in size from giants in their industries to niche manufacturers, and they are all vetted for quality of services and products prior to introduction to the group. The United Group executive team fosters strong alliances between suppliers and members by supporting and facilitating relationships and by openly sharing supplier terms with Members.

Suppliers are free to discuss rebate percentages without exception and are afforded quality, one-on-one meetings with Members at TUG’s annual Conference. Our supplier partners have become some of The United Group’s best supporters and often recommend us to their customers.

The United Group is a friendly, value-oriented organization that champions strong, reciprocal business relationships. We have a special quality that is sometimes hard to define. One Member described TUG as a group “of character,” a testament to our standards and practices of simplicity and honesty.